Evolutionary mechanisms of the gastrula organizer and blastopore formation by focusing on the gene regulatory network

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In early vertebrate development, the basic body plan is established by the gastrula organizer. To examine the role of several transcription factors that play a central role in this important tissue as well as its evolutionary scenario, we carried out chromatin-immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) analysis using Xenopus gastrula embryos. The data suggest that transcription factors Otx2, Lim1/Lhx1, Gsc, and Sia combinatorially bind to gene regulatory regions, and positively and negatively regulate several hundreds of genes. In addition, comparative functional analysis of regulatory regions between Xenopus and an ancient type of vertebrates, amphioxus, suggest a scenario, in which evolution in activities of regulatory regions of some organizer genes contributed for the vertebrate ancestor to have acquired the head structure.